An Alternative Halloween Ghost

by SC

I am a member of a small social group which meets every week, sometimes play reading, sometimes inviting individual contributions of almost everything having a prescribed theme. Yesterday, in recognition of the proximity of Halloween the theme was ‘spooks’ and we read prose and poetry to each other. We did not get as far as Edgar Allen Poe but almost. The group is about a dozen strong, mostly elderly women with widely differing backgrounds and experience.

I produced some suitable poetry but I also gave an outing to my single – eye mesh burqa, the nearest thing I could think of to the dress of a ghost as popularly understood. I was a bit worried that my colleagues would be really ‘spooked’ but they were all very amused and intrigued, particularly when I acted the part, moaning and waving my arms under the swathes of material. They were very interested in the material (which is some kind of polysilk, and actually very soft and smooth), and asked questions about how much I could see. None wanted to try it on for themselves, understandable in a way as most had paid some attention to their hair and realised that it would hardly be as presentable afterwards.

As for me, I experienced the usual thrill of wearing the burqa, and wrapping it around me or letting it fly by turns, conscious of being quite unrecogniseable. It was a very curious sensation making grimaces at my colleagues, and suddenly being conscious that nobody could possibly see my face, let alone know what I was doing with it!

Thanks to Oliver Braun, who I believe had this burqa made and sold it me.